How would I find Business Class bargains?

I am very flexible as to dates and am interested in Business Class from Los Angeles to France, Italy, China, Australia for vacations.

Thanks, CB

 

Try this forum:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/mileage-run-deals-372/

There is a thread dedicated to First/Biz deals. There is also a subforum with many threads discussing how to find deals.

 

One of the bargains is when you can get business class by using mileage. It doesn't happen very often, but worth watching for. 100,000 miles USA to Europe, and since miles now seem to be worth about a penny apiece, that makes for a $1000 fare.

You don't mention if you have an affiliation with any airline? That might help people give you advice. I'm in MSP, so the only choice now is Delta, but from LAX you could be with several different airlines??

Romelle

 

I can't help but think that the bolded portion of your statement might have something to do with your DL allegiance. For those of us that bank with other programs, biz award tix aren't too hard to snag.

 

+1. This thread is constantly being updated with great deals. I would look there instead of starting a whole new thread.

 

Welcome to FT.

Yes, the thread has great deals for J and F. But the intent is for mileage running on J and F.

You can ask fare-related questions on TravelBuzz though, if you say where you'd like to go and the general departure and return dates.

However, manage your expectations. Don't expect to fly J for $1000. Maybe between $2000-$3000 round-trip to Europe, $3000-$4000 to Asia, and $4000-$5000 to Australia. (Yes, those are the "discounted" fares. ) You may be lucky and find something for $1800 to Europe.

 

USAir had a promotion last summer where you could buy points and get twice as many - buy 50,000 and get 100,000. That's enough for a Business Class ticket to Europe for under $1,500. Great deal.

 

What are J & F? Classes? What's the difference?

cb

 

They seem to run these promos more often than not. Under the current deal, you get a 100% bonus when you buy or gift miles, so 100k costs $1375.

http://www.usairways.com/en-US/divid...s/default.html

 

J is business class, F is first. These are derived from fare codes that various airlines use for these classes. Some airlines use C for business class fares, so you will see that sometimes here on FT also. Y is full fare coach, with other codes denoting fare buckets for discounted biz, discounted coach, and various award ticket categories. These codes are mostly pretty standard, the discount ones vary more by airline and use most of the alphabet.

 

I like to consider the total costs included before doing that something like that. You can "buy" 100k for $1,375, but with the US Federal Excise Tax Recovery it's really $1,478.13 (I'm in CA but I think it's the same for every state). Then, when booking an award trip there are more costs: You'll probably need to use the call center, so that's $40. The processing fee is $50 for Europe. You also pay taxes and fees, as on any other ticket. So in the end a C class flight to Europe is around $1,700. Not bad, but it could be nasty surprise for someone with a tight budget who thought $1,375 would be enough. Moreover, depending on your route, business class sales can be had for that price and in that case you earn miles for an added bonus.

[Disclaimer: I have no experience with the US DM program, I did my analysis by collecting info online]

 

I get what you're saying, but the taxes/fees I encounter are usually closer to $200.

In any event, the current US promotion is a bit more pricey than usual. IIRC, for the deal that ended 5/31, you could have fetched 100k miles for $1000+. And, TIB was $700.

 

Thanks, as I said I don't have any particular experience with US, but I have started considering them lately due to all the promos. Maybe I already missed the best ones, although I saw they're cooking something for June 28.

Just to be clear: The $200 number is for US-EU C class tickets? And does it include the phone/ticketing fees or not? I appreciate the info, it would help me do some planning.

 

I have a hard time staying on top of taxes/fees. US does charge close in fees, which I hate. AA employs the same practice, but there's an easy work around (book 21+ days out and change to close in date).

If you play this game for a 2-3 years, you'll have enough points in your stash to do pretty much anything.

 

United was recently running a promo for discounted paid biz to Europe. Wish I would have saved the email...there were some options for around $1000 each way.

I'm sure it was heavily caveated and didn't include all the taxes. Usually when I see "cheap fares to Europe" advertised on United, it's IAD-FRA and IAD-BRU used as examples. Still, if the main TATL fare bucket is available, you could probably build mid-con or East Coast to Europe for around $3k R/T a.i.